Those in the child care community are sounding off about the new guidelines surrounding children and masks.
New guidance from the state requires unvaccinated children ages 2 and older to wear face masks in child care settings, day camps, and overnight camp programs. The masks can be removed when eating, drinking, showering, swimming, or sleeping.
"For the child care providers that we work with and advocate for, it makes things difficult," Kaley Donaldson, the communications and marketing specialist for the Child Care Resource Network, said.
The Child Care Resource Network helps families find child care, educates child care providers and advocates for the children of Western New York. Donaldson says there needs to be some adjustment to help the transition for these young children.
"Up until now, children in child care programs were not required to wear face masks,” she said. “Young children. I'm talking like our 2-year-olds, our 3-year-olds. So there is a little bit of a transition period that needs to happen in order for children to be comfortable with something like this.”
EduKids, which provides high-quality early childhood education in Western New York, emailed families Thursday in response to the new mask guidance.
Part of their statement read:
"We will do our best to positively guide and encourage children over the age of 2 to wear masks, but will not force a child to wear a facemask."
"In addition to that, the guidance required providers to start reporting on vaccination information and gather information from their employees that they don't have yet or haven't been required to provide yet, so there's a lift there,” Donaldson said. “There's leg work that needs to be done before that can be enacted.”
Another concern: not having enough time to implement these changes.
"A lot of them, they've been open through this whole pandemic,” said Donaldson. “They've been rolling with the punches on the new regulations that have been coming down, but just like any business, they need a little bit of time.”